SIMPLY UNFORGETTABLE; A foreigner’s first impression of China.

“First impressions are always unreliable.” 

Franz Kafka

“第一印象往往都是不可靠的”。

——弗兰兹·卡夫卡

US ALL/IN GENERAL

我们/大多数

Have you ever travelled to another country?

Or maybe just taken a short trip to that certain city within your own country that you were just dying to see?

Do you remember what you first experienced when you got there?

你有没有去过国外？或者，到国内哪个特别想去的城市进行一场短途旅行？

那你还记得自己到达那个国家或者城市的第一印象吗？

The one thing most of us get to experience at the beginning of our travels are the airports, both when we leave home, and when we, after hours and hours in that uncomfortable seat with no legroom, finally reach our destination. But if thinking about the journey in the context of the first impression, the airport is like a non-existing entity, and when reliving the memories of a vacation, a honeymoon, or what ever it might be, everything that happened in the airport simply doesn’t count as a valid part of the travel experience. 

And rightly so. 

Would you find it fascinating to look at the pictures your friend took when her passport was checked? Would you consider it as a “fun evening” to spend an hour and a half watching the video your parent’s shot when nothing happened as they were waiting for their luggage? 

Of course not. (Yawn.)

我们大多数人在开启一场旅行时，最先经历的一个地方就是机场，出发，再经过漫长而煎熬的空中旅行，最终达到目的地。但如果说到旅行的第一印象，机场似乎又是一种虚无的存在，每当回忆那场度假、蜜月之行或者任何一种旅行时，机场所发生的一切似乎都不算作这过程的一部分。

这也确实如此。

如果你在朋友圈看到别人发一张拿着护照过安检的照片，你会觉得有意思吗？如果看到你爸妈花一个半小时等行李的视频，你会觉得这是一个“有趣的夜晚”？

当然不会。（打哈欠）

From my experience, the places in which we arrive don’t even begin to exist to us until we have checked in at the hotel, had a shower, and perhaps even a good nights sleep. However, as it is with everything in life, there are always exceptions. Once in a while unexpected incidents occur. Out of the blue something special, weird, or funny happens, and just like that a moment that you will remember with a smile for the rest of your life is created. It might be the smallest of things. It might be something that others don’t regard as special, weird or funny at all, something you with your foreign eyes just perceive differently than the locals, as they see this kind of thing, this kind of behavior on a daily basis. 

从我个人的经历来说，直到酒店入住睡个好觉之前，所经之地似乎都不会在我们的旅行记忆中掀起任何涟漪。但是，正如生活中的一切事物一样，万事总有例外。一些特别的，奇怪的，或者有趣的事情可能会发生，出其不意，并构成美好的回忆。这可能是极小的一些事，在别人眼中可能稀松平常，但当你作为一个外国人来到这里，你眼中所看到的世界会与本地人非常不同，这些小事情对他们来说只是每天的日常，而对你来说可能是一个新的世界。

ME/PERSONAL

我/个人

My first visit to China was last summer. Longing to see my then fiancée (now wife), the fly-in didn’t really catch my eye at all, the passport and Visa check took way too long, and because of the summer heat reaching all the way into what was supposed to be an air conditioned terminal, it was just about impossible to be patient. 

第一次来中国是去年夏天。整个旅途，满心期待看到我的未婚妻，飞机上发生的任何事情都没有引起我的注意，只知道整个出境安检过程实在是太漫长了，加上当时夏天的热度，对我这个挪威人来说，还真是没有耐心等待。

But my first impression is not the airport. I don’t regard it as part of my travel experience either. Neither is my first impression being able to finally give my fiancée a hug, even though it probably was the best hug in the history of hugs. No, my first impression started after getting a taxi outside the airport, sitting in the back seat, holding my wife’s hand.

但是我对中国的第一印象不是机场。我没有把它作为旅行的一部分。然而，我的第一印象也不是与未婚妻的拥抱，虽然期待这一刻很久了，我对中国的第一印象其实是始于坐上计程车的那一刻。

At first it seemed like a regular car ride. The taxi took us away from Pudong Airport, onto the freeway. With my wife’s head resting on my shoulder I was looking out the window, trying to absorb the atmosphere of the city, when the driver suddenly honked his horn. Seeing that drivers in the part of the world that I come from only use their horn as what we might call “an extended middle finger”, out of anger, or when in danger of having an accident, I looked around, feeling a bit worried, but the only thing I could see was a white car approaching from behind. 

期初，这似乎只是一次普通的坐车之旅。出租车从浦东机场开到高速，爱人的头靠在我的肩膀，我望向窗外，当司机突然按了一声喇叭，我大吃一惊。这在我们国家，司机按喇叭就意味着愤怒，这跟“竖中指”没什么两样，要不然就是遇到了事故，不得已而为之，而当我环顾四周，甚至内心有点担心时，我唯一看到的就是一辆白色汽车从我们后边驶近。

Getting closer quite fast, the driver of the white car suddenly honked his horn in the same way the taxi driver did just a few seconds earlier. Our driver answered, and when a black car passing on the left of us honked his horn, I started to get the picture. They were actually talking to each other. Instead of using the blinkers, or any other means of communication that cars have while in traffic, they were communicating with sound. “I am over here”, the white car said. “I am coming up from behind”, the black car said. And when a red car started honking, saying “I am changing lanes now”, then a second white car, then a blue, it was like they were following a musical score, like a symphony taking place right there on the freeway. 

It was amazing.

白车靠我们越来越近，同时做了司机同样的动作，按了一声喇叭。我们的司机师傅也按了声喇叭作为回复，而当一辆黑色轿车驶过，也同样按了一声，那时我开始明白了。这在中国似乎是一种车与车之间的交流方式。除了用闪光灯，他们也通过喇叭交流。“我在这里”，白车说。“我从后面超过你”，黑车说。当红车按了声喇叭，似乎在说，“我要换道了”，然后是白车，蓝车，如同跟随一张乐谱，在高速上演奏着一曲车的交响乐。

这真是一个神奇的国度。

But it didn’t stop there. Three days later we went to Hefei. When taking a taxi from the train station the symphony started again, this time within the streets of the city. After a few minutes of “piccolo”, slow soft tones, it got into a “crescendo”, where the music builds up, before reaching the “fortissimo”, where it gets really loud, and as the intensity rose, more and more cars played off each other in an almost perfect composition. It was like a Mozart in its early stages. 

但这不仅仅于此。三天之后我跟爱人去了合肥。当出租车从火车站开出，交响乐再次在这个城市的街道上响起。经过几分钟缓慢而柔和的音调（piccolo），渐渐走强（crescendo），直到进入最强音地（crescendo），乐声响起（前三个单词为意大利语），不断走强，越来越多的车辆在一个近乎完美的作曲中互相戏弄着。就跟早期莫扎特一样。

As a traffic light turned from red to orange, then green, another feature was unexpectedly added to the production. On our right hand side a long line of scooters got written into the storyline, and in addition to the musical power they injected, they actually raised this unforeseen musical experience to another level when introducing costumes. And what made it even more amazing, and quite frankly a little bit absurd and surreal, like a scene from a film by Fellini, was that it wasn’t the drivers that wore costumes, it was the scooters. 

而当红绿灯从红到黄，再到绿，另一个中国特色意外地进入到这场创作中。在我们右手边，一串驶过的电动车被添加到了故事情节中，除了它们注入的音乐力量，它们奇怪的装扮将整个音乐体验提升到了新的层次。而更令人惊讶的是，我发现那奇怪的装束并不是穿在开车的人身上，而是电动车上！坦率的说这有点荒谬和超现实，就跟Fellini所导演的电影一样。

Suddenly it was not a regular city street anymore, but a totally different world, a world I had never before seen, or even imagined. The symphony was now an opera, and it was an opera performed with the strangest instruments you can think of, an opera that included all the colors of the world, different languages, with participants of all ages. It was an opera performed by regular people, for the regular people. 

突然间，这不再是一个普通的城市街道，而是完全不同的一个世界，一个我从未见，也从未想象过的世界。交响曲变成了一场歌剧表演，用尽了你所能想象到的任何奇怪乐器，涵尽了世间所有的色彩，语言，以及所有年龄段的参演者。这是普通人为普通人所上演的一部歌剧。

At one point I truly expected all parties involved to break out into a unison song, or maybe just leave their vehicles behind right there on the city stage, in the middle of the street, as they walked away singing in what would have been a glorious climax. But even if that scenario didn’t take place, it was simply unforgettable.

某种程度，我真希望所有参与者能突然齐唱一首歌，就像《爱乐之城》的片头一样，每个人突然停下来，从车内跳出，跑到街道的中央共同起舞，让毫无生气的道路突然变得丰富多彩起来。虽然，现实中没有上演我脑子的片段，但绝对令人难以忘怀。

Yes, Beijing has the famous Peking Opera, but can that arranged spectacle top, or even compare, to the improvised, public spectacle from reality that is my first impression of China?

Well, I doubt it, but I guess it remains to be seen. 

是的，北京有最著名的京剧，但那排练好的表演能与我眼前的这场即兴表演相比吗？

嗯，说实话，我表示怀疑，但还是拭目以待吧。